I've always loved word play, puns, and rhymes ever since the kids at school called me Ibronyi macaroni (my maiden name is Ibronyi). I felt they must have cared a lot to go to all the trouble to find a decent rhyme for Ibronyi! Maybe that's what first attracted me to Gilbert and Sullivan, Cole Porter, Tom Lehrer and musical theater writing in general. I know, I know, everyone complains that pop and rock songs rely heavily on soft rhymes, not because they are making a creative statement, but because they are lazy (even some of my favorite pop artists like Peter Allen are guilty of the occasional sloppy rhyme).

I don't care for mimes, but these are a few of my favorite rhymes:

"I'm not making promises to all you doubting Thomases", from the movie musical There's No Business Like Show Business

"...you get enough germs to catch pneumonia, after you do he'll never phone ya", from I'll Never Fall in Love Again in Promises, Promises, words by Hal David (music by Burt Baccarach)

The entire set of lyrics for You're the Top, by Cole Porter.

"You can spray her wherever you figure the streptococci lurk, you can give her a shot for whatever's she's got but it just won't work", from Adelaide's Lament in Guys and Dolls, lyrics by Frank Loesser

"Something sweet, something sort of grandish, sweeps my soul when thou art near, my heart feels so sugar candish, my head feels so ginger beer", from Finian's Rainbow, lyrics by E.Y. Harburg

"...Dear kindly Sergeant Krupke, you gotta understand, it's just our bringin' up-ke that gets us out of hand", from West Side Story, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim

" Smut! Give me smut and nothing but... a dirty novel I can't shut, if it's uncut and unsubt - le!", from Smut by Tom Lehrer.

"...Remember mommy I'm off to get a commie so send me a salami....", from So Long, Mom by Tom Lehrer.

"I was alas his nursery maid, and so it fell to my lot, to take and bind this promisng boy apprentice to a pilot" from Pirates of Penzance, lyrics by W.S. Gilbert